1. Origin and Meaning of the Term
translate the Greek verb
logimsthai
in
and
Meaning Ps, xaxii. 2. This passage is quoted
of the by Paul in
Rom. iv. 8
and made one
Term. of the foundations of his argument
that, in saving man, God sets to his
credit a righteousness without works. It is only
in these two passages, and in the two axiomatic
statements of
Rom. iv. 4
and v. 13 that the Vulgate
uses imputo in this connection (of,, with special
application,
II Tim. iv. 16;
Philemon 18).
There are
other passages, however, where it might just as well
have been employed, but where we have instead
reputo,
under the
influence of the mistaken rendering of the Hebrew
haahabh
in
Gen. xv. 6.
In these
passages the Authorised English Version improves
on the Latin by rendering a number of them
(
Rom. iv. 11, 22, 23, 24;
II Cor. v. 19;
James ii, 23)
by
"impute," and employing for the rest synonymous
terms, all -of which preserve the " metaphor from
accounts " inherent in
togizesftuti
(and eltogetn)
in
this usage (of.
Sanday-Neadlam, Commentary
on
Romans, iv.
3), such as "count"
(
Rom. iv. 3, 8),
"account"
(
Gal. iii. 6),
and "reckon" (Rohr.
iv. 4, 9, 10); the last of which the Revised English
Version makes its uniform rendering of
logizeesthai.
Even the meager employment of
imputo
in the Latin
version, however, supplied occasion enough for the
adoption of that word in the precise language of
theology as the technical term for that which is
expressed by the Greek words in their so-called
"commercial" sense, or what may, more correctly,
be called their forensic or' judicial ' sense, " that is,
putting to one's account," or, in its twofold
reference to the credit and debit
sides, " setting
to one's credit " or " laying to one's charge."
